# bombela/backward-cpp

A beautiful stack trace pretty printer for C++

Repository: https://github.com/bombela/backward-cpp
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/backward-cpp
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2025-04-14T17:34:48+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 30/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 16, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4945, "days_push": 506, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4299, forks 536 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:41.562678+00:00)

## What it is
Backward-cpp is a header-only C++ library that pretty-prints stack traces with source code snippets when crashes or fatal errors occur. It integrates with CMake and can automatically print traces on segfaults, aborts, and unhandled exceptions.

## Use cases
- pretty print C++ stack traces on crash
- debug segfaults with source snippets
- print stack trace on unhandled exceptions
- add crash diagnostics to a C++ application
- improve readability of backtraces in logs

## When to choose
- you want readable stack traces with inlined frames and code snippets in C++
- you need automatic trace printing on fatal signals with minimal setup
- you prefer a header-only drop-in library with CMake integration

## When to avoid
- you need a full debugger or interactive crash analysis tool
- your platform lacks debug symbol libraries like libbfd, libdwarf, or libdw
- you cannot tolerate the runtime dependency on debug information libraries

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: developer-tools, error-handling, logging
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: cpp, windows, cross-platform
- tags: stack-trace, debugging, header-only, signal-handling, crash-reporting, cpp, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- bombela/backward-cpp (main) score 30

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:41.562678+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:21:51.191947+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/bombela/backward-cpp (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:41.562678+00:00, sha 6350077e9d4e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.